Results 781-800 of 1,776 for speaker:Derek Nolan

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Let us change it to "national concern".

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: The central issue in the 2000 report was that cancellations were being made without reasons being given. That continued until 2012.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Sure. This is a real corporate governance issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: This issue was flagged in 2000. The perception that things were being fixed or written off inappropriately was not acted on fully at that time. There was something wrong in the corporate governance of An Garda Síochána, given that this was not fixed promptly and fully at that time.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Can I ask a final question? I am aware that I am probably running out of time. The question relates to the differing termination rates at the various district levels. It has been identified that the percentage of charges that are terminated or cancelled varies significantly from a low of 0.1% in Birr to a high of 5.9% in Ennis. What was going on in Ennis that it had such a high level of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: I want to come back to an issue I was pressing Mr. Callinan on. I am still not satisfied. Has the activity in question, whereby a garda cancels a notice for a family friend as a favour, been uncovered in any of the Garda's investigations? I will put it as bluntly as that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Is that a definition of "corruption" or of "fraud"?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: We have ascertained that this issue would come under that definition of "corruption". Has the Garda come across such activity and behaviour in any of its investigations?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: If I, as a member of the force, am being questioned by Mr. O'Mahoney on the penalty points I cancelled for my friend or a relative such as a brother or sister, does that come under the Commissioner's definition of corruption?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Mr. Callinan has referenced the report, saying there was no evidence of criminality or corruption. I am trying to arrive at a meaning for "corruption". To be pedantic, does the fact that I cancel penalty points for a friend as a favour, for which I get no benefit, mean that it is not corruption, while if somebody paid me to cancel the fine it would be a case of corruption? I am trying to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: I understand and accept that point, but my point is that the internal investigation into the matter took a sample of cancelled fixed charge notices and went through them. I understand there was a random selection of 672 fixed charge notices and the examination found no evidence of any act of criminality or corruption. I am trying to tease out what this statement means. Does "corruption"...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: I accept that. I have seen the report that has been updated from the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and how the new processes will be put in place to ensure that this will not happen again. This issue has come to the fore because people agitated to make an issue of it and demanded that it be made public, saying that if one knew a garda - for example, a family friend - or...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: In fairness, I am asking questions about your own report. I am not asking you about allegations. I am asking you to comment on what is in the report.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Did the investigation that took place uncover such actions as I have outlined?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: The Comptroller and Auditor General's report of 2000, 14 years ago, stated that there was a practice of allowing fine notices to be cancelled on the instructions of Garda superintendents without recording the reasons and that this may have led to different criteria for cancellations being applied in different areas and may also have created a perception that certain kinds of fine could be...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: I refer to two things the Commissioner said. He said the system or the process was weak and that there were flaws in it and that the decision-making based on it was often not transparent, that no reason was given in some instances or that there was no back-up documentation. There is a bad system and decisions which cannot be backed up.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Some 5%-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: Some 95% of them go through the right process, but 5% are cancelled and there are reasons for half of those. They either go through Thurles, or we have back-up to go with them. Approximately, half go down to discretionary grounds, usually through district offices. This is the place where this accusation and the concerns expressed by the Comptroller and Auditor General in his report and by...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: I welcome the Commissioner and his officials. I wish to point out that I am related to Mr. Ruane, who is seated at the top table. This issue has continued for a long time. Part of the reason it has received public attention and why the public and ourselves are so interested in the matter is that the perception has been created that if one knows someone in the Garda, or knows a garda who...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Home Renovation Incentive Scheme Applications (21 Jan 2014)

Derek Nolan: 211. To ask the Minister for Finance if there is a breakdown, by county, of the homeowners who have availed of the home renovation scheme tax break; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2537/14]